Hartford’s Worst Disaster

This week marks the anniversary of the worst disaster to hit the City of Hartford, Connecticut, some 169 years ago. On Thursday, March 2, 1854, at about 2 PM in the Dutch Point neighborhood of Hartford a boiler exploded, tearing apart the Fales & Gray Railroad Car Works factory. According to news reports: “Nine workers, including the boiler engineer, died instantly in the explosion, with twelve more men dying from their injuries over the next few days. An estimated fifty additional workers suffered serious injuries.” Unfortunately, Hartford had no hospital and the injured who survived the blast had to be transported to New Haven where the Yale University medical school maintained a hospital for its students’ training.

According to Today in History the New York Times reported that Fales & Gray employed 300 people, a third of whom were working in the part of the factory impacted by the blast:

“’The explosion was most terrific—breaking the timbers of the building, powerful machinery… and prostrating the walls of the building for a hundred feet in length.’ Workmen were buried in the rubble when the roof and walls caved in. Sixteen workers were killed, and ‘a great many’ injured. The cause was a new 50-horse-power boiler that had been in operation for about a month. The power of the blast killed the boiler’s engineer, John McCuen, whose arm was found “at some distance from the body.’ Other victims were “horribly mutilated, and in some instances the bodies could scarcely be recognized.”

Connecticut Historical Society image of the devastation caused by the boiler explosion around 2 p.m. on 2 March 1854 at the railroad car factory in Hartford.

According to a pamphlet entitled An Account of the Terrible Explosion at Fales & Gray’s Car Manufactory, published after the tragedy for the benefit of the survivors:

“To paint the agony of the relatives, wives, children, mothers and fathers, whose relatives were sufferers, would be impossible. They rushed wildly to and fro, while the workmen were extricating the sufferers, calling upon their relatives in the most piteous tones; and when a body was brought out, the eagerness they manifested to know if it was that of a relative, must be imagined, for no words can describe. Suffice it to say, that in many instances, they failed to recognize their own relatives, so blackened, and distorted, and mutilated were the bodies, by the dirt, bruises, and fearful scalds. Some were so badly scalded, that on touching them the skin peeled off in the hand. Many of the dead were only recognized by the clothing they wore, and as their relatives sought them out, and found them in the arms of death, the scenes which ensued on recognition were painful in the extreme. The majority of the workmen lived in the immediate neighborhood, consequently the interest excited by the catastrophe, brought large troops of friends and acquaintances to the spot, many of whom, especially the ladies, exerted themselves to soothe the wild grief of the bereaved.”

Here is a chart cast for 2 PM, the approximate time of the explosion:

An interesting feature of the above chart is that Mars is squaring the Moon’s Nodes, and the Moon is squaring the Descending Node of both Saturn and Chiron, which lie at 26 Cap 24′ and 26 Cap 15′, respectively, quite near the Ascendant of this chart set for 2 PM.

Here is the same chart in 90-degree dial format with the Transneptunians included and the Pointer set to Mars/Zeus = to heat, to burn, danger of fire, machines, etc:

This chart is set for 2 pm, an approximate time, so the Asc and MC are not exact. Because all the news sources give a time close to 2 p.m., the planetary positions are close exact for the time of the event.

Notice how Mars/Zeus is closely connected to the Sun, Mercury, 0 Aries, Hades, Moon, Volcanus, Ademtos and Saturn. The Rule Book delineates Mars/Zeus = Sun as machinists, and injuries by torch, flame or firearms. When linked to Hades, as it is here, “cremation” is the specific delineation. The interpretation of Mars/Hades = Zeus includes death caused by machines, auto, firearms, murder; being burned to death.